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State Attorney Angela Corey slammed by group highlighting the acquittal of George Zimmerman as well as Jacksonville cases

In front of State Attorney Angela Corey’s office in Jacksonville, a clutch of activists Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the George Zimmerman acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case by chanting for her resignation.

“We gotta get rid of Angela Corey,” the refrain ended after invoking Zimmerman and Martin as well as the high-profile Jacksonville cases of Michael Dunn and Marissa Alexander. Dunn awaits a new trial in the homicide of Jacksonville teenager Jordan Davis after a jury couldn’t decide on his first-degree murder charge. Alexander, whose initial conviction on three counts of aggravated assault was overturned, also is awaiting a new trial.

The group was traveling to St. Augustine and Bunnell before ending the day in Sanford, where Zimmerman was tried, said Stephanie Guilloud of Project South, an Atlanta group.

Along the way, the members planned to present plaques to churches and others who offered support on behalf of Martin during the Zimmerman trial. In Sanford they will end at a memorial to the teenager, Guilloud said.

They began in Jacksonville in front of the Courthouse Annex on Bay Street to focus on Corey, whose office is in the building and who prosecuted all three cases.

Terry Gilliam of the Jacksonville chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Council called for Corey’s ouster.

“Lord, stop the pain by getting evil up out of these offices,” she said.

The protesters represented a group of activists from 10 Southern states that advocate for a variety of issues. They include the New Jim Crow Movement in Jacksonville and Free Marissa Now.

In a news release, the group said 400,000 people in Florida are disenfranchised from voting. They criticized what they said was Corey’s long track record of “over-sentencing record numbers of young black and Latino people.”

The State Attorney’s Office said the group has misinformed the public, particularly that grass-roots pressure led to Alexander’s guilty verdict getting thrown out — it was overturned due to an error in jury instructions. By law, Alexander would face 60 years if convicted of all three aggravated-assault counts.

Jackelyn Barnard, Corey’s spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement that unfortunately the group’s focus is not on the number of children shot and killed in Jacksonville and how to stop the violence.

“The State Attorney’s Office has a duty to protect this community and to seek justice for all our victims in the 4th Judicial Circuit, and we will continue to do so,” the statement said.

Outside their offices, Kenneth Glasgow of Dothan, Ala., led the chants and said there also needs to be a focus on voting.

“We don’t have to convince you about Angela Corey,” he said. “What we’ve got to do is make some people vote.”

He said absentee ballots could be used by those who are jailed but have not lost their right to vote.

In the past, organizing among churches and grass-roots groups brought success in addressing civil rights issues, he said.

“We need to go back to the way we did it before and go to the uncommon places,” he said.